Crafting fighter Rus pants

During my winter breaks between semesters I always try to stay busy, and typically that means sewing up new garb for myself and Jamie for the annual SCA event called "Market Day at Birka". The SCA basically takes over the Raddison Hotel in Manchester, New Hampshire for three days. Friday is when everyone starts arriving to get settled down into their rooms and the first night of festivities begins. Saturday is the main events begin–the market opens and all the vendors put out their wares to be sold to the people. Items range from fabric, trim, feastware, boardgames and garb and the fights commence!

Around noon the bear pit battles for both the heavy list fighters and the fencers begin. A bear pit is where a series of small rectangles are roped off to make fighting areas. Two contestants enter the ring and a duel begins. Whoever is the victor of the fight stays in the ring and another contestant enters the list. This continues until the victor is killed or the marshall's tell them that they need to cycle through the line again. These fighting rules apply to both the heavy fighters and the fencers, and this continues for 3 hours straight. Not everyone can fight for 3 hours straight, so fighters are more than welcome to take breaks to cool down, get a drink and eat some pickles or oranges to get the salt content back into their system that is sweated out from fighting.

Once the fighting is over, there is a small break for fighters to change out of their fighting gear and into more comfortable garb. We usually grab some much needed sustenance from the hotel restaurant and then hang out with friends until we feel tired and head back home or to our hotel rooms.

This year will be different though, as Jamie and I are both on the Queensguard. The Queensguard are people chosen by the Queen to act as her body guards. There is never a moment that the Queen is walking around and we, the Queensguard, are not close to her side. It is such a fun experience, especially with me being a photographer. I not only have access to areas that most people not part of the royal house have, but I also have access to great shots from behind the thrones (where the queensguard stands during court).

Anyways, I have digressed from the main point of this article. Jamie has been wanting some new fighting pants for his Viking kit. He has been making his kit more authentic and wants to replace his fighting kilt with Viking Rus pants. We were told, by some close friends, of a wonderful $2.99 fabric store in Rocky Hill. We decided to make a trip out to it to see exactly what fabric they had to offer, and I was surprised at the amount of fabric they had. I was kind of expecting it to be a small little store, but it was actually pretty big.

We make our way towards the upholstery fabric area, as this fabric will be the best to uphold the beating that is given on the heavy field. Jamie was immediately drawn to a nice blood red fabric (his heraldry colors are red, white and black) and we grab 6 yards of it–I want to use the extra to make him a new fencing doublet.

After washing and drying the fabric, to preshrink it, it is now time to start cutting out the pieces. I do not have a pattern for these so I took a pair I made months ago and fold them in half and use them as a pattern to cut out each top part of the pant legs. I then measured both the length and width of the bottom part of the rus pants on to the fabric and cut out the two bottom rectangular pieces that will eventually be attached to the top parts.

Once all the pieces are cut out, I begin to pleat the bottom of the top part of the pants to the bottom calf part. My very first pair of rus pants I had gathered instead of pleating and my machine had issues with attaching the two pieces together nicely. My friend Sarah had told me that she had pleated her husband's pants and it was a lot easier to connect the pieces. I did this with a pair of non-fighting rus pants I had recently made for Jamie, and I loved how they looked once he put them on.

The next step, once the calf part is attached to the top part, is attaching the two big pieces together into the almost final form of the pants. It took me much trial and error to finally get the right process of sewing the pants together down. What I do is I first sew the pieces together that make the crook in the crotch. Instead of adding a gusset, I cut the fabric into a backward J–the crook of the J acts as a built in gusset. Once I finish sewing those parts, I then sew from the bottom of one leg all the way to the bottom of another leg, thus making the pants into nearly wearable pants.

My kitty is looking over the pants for a final approval before I move onto the finishing parts.

With the pants now a whole, I go about making the waistband for the drawstring to pass through (Jamie prefers drawstring over elastic band). I used to sew the waistband closed all around and then cut two holes and hand sew them like eyelets, but lately I have found it easier to keep a small part of the waistband open and that will be where the draw string both enters and exits from. I quickly sewed up a draw string that I made from a 2 inch piece of the red fabric by folding in the raw edges and then folding the piece in half and sewing it down the side.

With the waistband and drawstring done, it is time for the finishing touches – hemming the bottom of the pants. I first run them through my serger (Christmas present from Jamie) and then fold them back 1 inch and iron them down so I do not have to worry about using pins. Once both pieces have been ironed, I make quick work of the hems with my sewing machine.

And here it is ladies and gentlemen! Please excuse my model's lack of emotion, he had just woken up for work when I requested he put the pants on for a photo. The fabric itself, which I failed to mention earlier, is a heavy canvas and is still a bit stiff, but I am sure it will soften up after a few washes and a few runs through the bear pits. I will take photos of his entire kit at Birka so you can see how it is coming together nicely.